UN condemns Ivory Coast bombing

Tensions have been rising since a disarmament deadline was missed

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has condemned raids by government aircraft on rebel-held Ivory Coast as a "major violation" of the ceasefire.

Mr Annan's spokesman said several dozen civilians may have been killed or injured in the attacks.

Later, there was an unconfirmed report that government troops and former rebels were involved in ground clashes.

The attacks on Bouake and Korhogo are the first major resumption of hostilities since last year's truce.

The country has been split in two, with 10,000 French and UN troops deployed to monitor the ceasefire.

Last week, the former rebels, known as the New Forces, withdrew their ministers from the unity government and accused the army of preparing to return to war.

Explosions

The first two raids struck Bouake, a rebel stronghold, on Thursday morning, when two Sukhoi fighter planes apparently targeted a military camp and a checkpoint to the north of the city.

We've just been bombed. The war has started again New Forces commander Cherif Ousmane

In a raid in the afternoon, jets bombed the rebel headquarters and the television station, a French spokesman told the BBC.

But witnesses told Reuters new agency that the raid on the headquarters had missed.

Korhogo - situated 225 kilometres (140 miles) north of the rebel stronghold of Bouake - was reportedly bombed at nightfall.

Later, a UN military spokesman told the BBC army soldiers and former rebels had been involved in a ground skirmish near the central town of Raviar.

If confirmed, it will be the first time there has been fighting on the ground in months.

Medecins Sans Frontieres say they have treated at least 39 people for serious wounds in the main former rebel town of Bouake, and a spokesman for the former rebels said he believed at least five people had been killed.

There are likely to have been further casualties in Korhogo, says the BBC's James Copnall in Ivory Coast.

He says there is a state of panic in Bouake, where the power has been cut.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan was "deeply concerned" by the attacks. He urged President Laurent Gbagbo and all parties "to immediately cease all hostilities and to take all possible actions to prevent further bloodshed".

US state department spokesman Richard Boucher condemned the attacks and urged "all the parties to exercise restraint and continue to work together to decrease tensions".

'New offensive'

The main government army command has so far refused to comment on whether this is the start of an all-out offensive to regain the north, which has been held by the New Forces for two years now.

The New Forces have long been suspicious of President Gbagbo's commitment to peace

However, army commanders have told reporters it is.

"We've started with an aerial bombardment and we will start using armoured vehicles for a terrestrial assault," Captain Jean-Noel Abbey, the head of an armoured vehicle division told Reuters.

"We think we can finish the war in six days. We are going to attack all the zones where there are rebels," he said from the capital, Yamoussoukro, 100km south of Bouake.

New Forces commander Cherif Ousmane told the Associated Press: "We've just been bombed. The war has started again."

A spokesman for the group said it had "taken note of the inactivity" of impartial forces, including UN troops stationed in Bouake.

Alert

Over the last two days two cabinet meetings have been boycotted by the former rebels and four opposition parties.

The remaining ministers, mainly from President Gbagbo's FPI party, drafted bills on controversial issues including nationality and a referendum on eligibility to run for president.

Those issues are at the heart of this conflict, says our correspondent.

The bills are now likely to be rubber-stamped in the National Assembly in forms that will not please the former rebels and the rest of the opposition.

Tensions had grown in Ivory Coast since deadlines to vote in those reforms and for disarmament to begin were missed.